In recent years, diplomatic historians have devoted increasing attention to the multifarious practitioners of diplomacy. ‘New diplomatic history’ approaches have broadened the field socially and thematically: on the one hand, they have gauged the roles of those men and women often bypassed in more orthodox surveys of diplomatic interactions; on the other hand, they have revised the classical diplomat and interstate diplomacy by exploring how diplomatic practices and the diplomat’s various roles and social milieus were transformed (Scott-Smith, 2014).
In this workshop, we will investigate diplomacy and diplomats in the imperial world order of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will consider the apparent dichotomy between empire in its ‘modern’ form of (semi-)colonization, monopolization and unequal trade, settler colonialism, and violent subjugation (particularly in Africa and Asia); and empire as the ‘traditional’ claim to single and undivided rule as expressed for instance in the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires (Evans, 2009). Both manifestations of empire were often both stimulated and challenged by the rise of (anti-imperial and anti-colonial) nationalism and the creation of nation-states throughout the period.
We welcome contributions that focus on 1°) ‘diplomats’ in the wider sense of the word: not only accredited political representatives but also consuls, diplomatic spouses, European ‘experts’ and ‘advisers’ in semi-colonial states, bankers and soldiers assuming diplomatic roles, etc.; 2°) diplomacy as practice, including (but not limited to) issues of ceremony and representation as diplomatic tools (e.g. architecture of legations and embassies, urban planning, negotiations surrounding the construction of railways and other infrastructures), rivalry and co-operation between diplomats, etc.; and 3°) the ‘reception’ of imperial diplomacy: the legation as a locus of protest and other contestations of diplomatic presence, etc.
In this workshop, we will investigate diplomacy and diplomats in the imperial world order of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will consider the apparent dichotomy between empire in its ‘modern’ form of (semi-)colonization, monopolization and unequal trade, settler colonialism, and violent subjugation (particularly in Africa and Asia); and empire as the ‘traditional’ claim to single and undivided rule as expressed for instance in the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires (Evans, 2009). Both manifestations of empire were often both stimulated and challenged by the rise of (anti-imperial and anti-colonial) nationalism and the creation of nation-states throughout the period.
We welcome contributions that focus on 1°) ‘diplomats’ in the wider sense of the word: not only accredited political representatives but also consuls, diplomatic spouses, European ‘experts’ and ‘advisers’ in semi-colonial states, bankers and soldiers assuming diplomatic roles, etc.; 2°) diplomacy as practice, including (but not limited to) issues of ceremony and representation as diplomatic tools (e.g. architecture of legations and embassies, urban planning, negotiations surrounding the construction of railways and other infrastructures), rivalry and co-operation between diplomats, etc.; and 3°) the ‘reception’ of imperial diplomacy: the legation as a locus of protest and other contestations of diplomatic presence, etc.
Michael Auwers is a teaching fellow at the University of Antwerp’s History Department. He teaches primarily on nineteenth-century Belgium’s multifarious relations with East Asia and North America. His research interests lie primarily in the history of the cultures and practices of diplomacy. They have mainly resulted in work about gift-giving, visual culture and diplomacy in the early seventeenth century and in articles about the influence of democratization on diplomatic culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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Charlotte Rottiers is currently working as a PhD researcher at the KU Leuven’s Faculty of Architecture in Ghent. She obtained her Master degree in Art History at Ghent University. Afterwards, she followed a Bachelor in Eastern European Languages and Cultures. Her interests lie in architectural history, cultural and political representation combined with the formation of identity through art and architecture. Her current research investigates the role attributed to architecture and art in the deployment of the Belgian diplomatic network from the moment of its foundation until the outbreak of the second World War.
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WORKSHOP IMAGE
"En Chine. Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs“, in Le Petit Journal, 16 januari 1898.